I Passed the Framing Inspection

This morning I wasn't feeling well and decided to stay home. I got up, took care of a couple minutes of work and left an early morning message for the building inspector that I was ready for my inspection. Then I went back to bed.

The building inspector called me back while I was sleeping and said he could drop by today at noon. I loved the fact that he called me back right away and the timing worked out pretty good because I was home sick.

He came in at noon with a trainee. She was the one filling out the paperwork (that I will scan and post later) and it only took a couple of minutes. She checked my work versus the design and the special notes from the permit. Most notably the size of my door (32") and the height of the soffit (I'm well above the 6' 5" required). She was also concerned about the R value of the insulation in between the joists (needs to be R20). I stated that it was existing insulation and hadn't changed it ... so that was fine. I asked a few of questions concerning insulation / vapour barrier:

Q: Can I go to the floor with the insulation or should I leave space?
A: They recommend I leave a space of at least 1' in case I have a flood. In that situation the insulation will wick the water upwards. And instead of replacing more drywall I would only have to replace the bottom bit.

Q: Do I need felt paper behind the insulation?
A: Yes. It keeps the insulation away from the exterior wall and helps keep it from falling.

Q: Staple vs Sealant to attach the vapour barrier.
A: Both are fine as long as I remember to make sure the vapour barrier goes in between the joists. I will try the acoustic sealant first and if that is too difficult to work with I will move to staples.

Q: How do I work to old insulation with the new stuff?
A: Overlap them at least 4" and tuck tape the seams.

Q: I would like to insulate the wall separating the laundry room and the rec room. What should I use to enclose to insulation.
A: Vapour barrier is fine.

Q: I'm planning on reusing the existing heating vent and how far down should I bring it.
A: You don't have to bring it to the floor but the fresh air intake should come to the floor.

He answered most of my questions while she filled out the paperwork. She showed me the notes and told me I passed. I said I should see them in a couple of weeks. I showed them out and went back to sleep... still not feeling well. The whole thing only took about 15 minutes.

Next step is electrical and venting. I'm slightly ahead of schedule because the inspection got done so quickly. I had 7 days allocated for inspection to give me a buffer for scheduling. Electrical (including coax and cat5) needs to be completed by December 5th for me to stay on schedule.

Framing done ready for inspection

I haven't been working on the basement much lately. Thursday night I had hockey. Friday night I had lacrosse. Saturday I worked on the last bit of soffit work.



Monday night I finished it off...



Installed the pocket door temporarily with the sheets stapled to the framing to keep my nosey cat out.

I also moved the insulation downstair and moved the scrap wood into the garage.

I forgot to mention that I didn't do any work on Sunday because I wasn't feeling well. All I did was lay around and watched football.

I'm all done framing and I'm ready for my inspection.

Mistake number two

I know I haven't been updating lately but don't you worry I have been working hard.

On Monday night I installed the pocket door. It seemed to go in pretty well unfortunately I didn't realize until it was in that I didn't have enough clearance for the soffit. This means all the work I did on Monday night had to be redone on Tuesday night. Even worse I had to take apart the pocket door frame and cut it down to fit.

Pocket door on Monday night:

Looks good right?

Pocket Door after being redone on Tuesday night:

Please note at the top that it's down about an inch.

Wednesday night I started on the soffit. It's not easy but I got most of it done. I built it on the ground then attached it to the joists.

This is the little bit left over.

I might even cover some of it with the plywood I bought to help secure it a little more.Having to redo the door but me behind schedule by one day. I'm still looking good though.

All the walls are up

Well not quite. Even though I bought another 8 studs Sunday morning I'm still short 3 studs. I had also planned on using this lumber to build the soffit. Either way I'm saying the walls are up.





On Monday I hope to install the frame for the pocket door. I printed off some instructions from the manufacturers Web site and I should be good to go. Once I have that framed in I'll be able to figure out the soffit situation to see it I have enough clearance.

FYI the Bills are playing the Browns for the Monday nighter. Hopefully I'll get it done before kickoff.

Old framing meet new framing

Friday night and Saturday I worked on the remaining two walls. One of the walls connects to an existing wall so I needed to spend a little time trimming out old and inserting new lumber. It's not perfect but I'm sure my work is much more solid than what the builder had done. If fact the one wall with the door on it is so crooked that it's out at least one inch on the bottom.

I also realized that because of my previous mistake I had to buy one more PT stud. Below you can see the opening for my pocket door. You need to frame an opening 2 times the size of the door. I think it's going to be a nice feature but I'm concerned about clearance under the soffit that I'm going to build around the duct.

Two Walls Down and Two To Go

After another 2 1/2 hours of work I managed to get up the most difficult wall.

You can see some of the intricate blocking around the ducts and beam.

And my pile of lumber is quickly dwindling.

I think I'm about halfway done the framing. I have the two easier walls left and the box around the ducts. I've worked on the framing for one week and I still have another week left according to my schedule. Which means I'm on schedule. I would love to get the framing done this weekend and put myself ahead of schedule.

Intricate Corner Work

I worked on the basement for another 4 hours tonight. I wasn't cutting and nailing the whole time. This time around I spent most of energy thinking about how I would frame this difficult corner. Before I explain further... BEHOLD my first full wall.



Enjoy it in all its wonderful splendor. I know it's just one wall but out the four walls I'm doing it's the second most intricate. Here's a pic of the difficult corner that I was talking about.



It doesn't look like much but when I get closer so you can see between the joists...



You can see the work. It's solid and fairly well framed. I probably used too many nails but I'm no expert at toe nailing.



I also did some of the tedious work of measuring and blocking the most difficult wall. This wall will need blocks all the way across, will need to go around pipes, will need to go around the ducts AND will need to be framed for a door.

Not bad for a Monday night. I managed to finish by 10:30pm so I could catch the 3rd and 4th quarter of the Monday nighter between the 49ners and the Cardinals.

Even though I have the day off tomorrow I'm not sure if I will have time to work on the basement. I have to clean my gutters, put up Xmas lights and head downtown to see the best live act around Priestess at Maverick's. I've seen them 7 times and I would consider myself a bit of a fan.